A DC-area Mommy, gamer, coder, archer, and general bon viveur, Aimee is thrilled to be passing her passion for life on to her two sons.

When playing at adulthood, she develops ecommerce sites and documentation for Virid. When playing online, she is a Community Manager for Genia Games and Citadel Studios. In the spare time she wishes she had, Aimee writes for Game Geex on Aggro Range.

Aimee is a Competent English Speaker™ and fluent in Standard Galactic.

#CMGRHANGOUT PRESENTS: Managing community conflicts & controversies

#CMGRHANGOUT PRESENTS: Managing community conflicts & controversies

#CMGRHANGOUT PRESENTS: Managing community conflicts & controversies

October 31, 2014Aimee Jarboe

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This Halloween episode of CMGRHangout is scary. Not “spooky”, not “creepy”, but downright “oh you did not just insult my favorite President” SCARY. Conflict is difficult for every person on this planet, and as community managers our instinct is often to squash it before it starts. On this panel, we talked about why you want to encourage healthy controversy and how to define boundaries and prevent it getting it out of hand. We also talk about why community members do better with controversy sometimes, and how it affects their trust in each other and your brand.

How often are we taught to never talk about religion or politics? All the time, right? The obvious reason for this is that almost everyone has an opinion and opinions in these categories cause quite a bit of controversy, which often leads to conflict. For some, there is nothing spookier than conflict.

In her article How to Handle Conflict and Controversy in Online Communities, our panelist Katie Bapple points out that avoiding this conflict is actually isolating and that to truly create human bonds and create strong community interactions, the “solution is to handle the matter head-on by building an understanding of each conflicting viewpoint at a deeper level.” So how do we do that?

Join us for this week’s #CMGRHangout panel on Friday, October 31st at 2pm EST to talk about what to do when conflict arises in your community and how to foster those positive interactions.

Jonathan Brewer, Sherrie Rohde and Dom Garrett will be hosting the Hangout with Katie Bapple, Jared Cummings, Patrick Hellen, David Hurley and Aimee Jarboe as panelists. Sarah Nagel and Emma Cunningham will be moderating the Twitter chat using #CMGRHangout.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

How often do you manage conflicts/controversy in your community?

What steps do you take to assess community conflicts/controversy after discovering it exists?

When do you choose to ignore conflicts/controversy taking place in your community?

When do you choose to facilitate conflicts/controversy taking place in your community?

How do you decide when to remove or close a controversial conversation?

When have you had to ban a member who instigated conflict/controversy?